Since its introduction in 1990, PowerPoint has been used
(and abused) by attorneys in countless trials. If you’ve been in trial since
then, chances are you’ve seen some “interesting” creations. I know I have. For some
excellent suggestions on doing it correctly, see Top Ten Tips for Creating Professional Trial Presentations Using PowerPoint
(Ted Brooks), Five Essential PowerPoint Tips for Attorneys (Morgan Smith), and 16 PowerPoint Litigation Graphics You Won't Believe Are PowerPoint (Ken Lopez).
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| PowerPoint for Court |
If you’d like some in-depth help that comes complete with a
nice legal-specific set of materials, check out Herb Rubinstein’s PowerPoint for Court. The package
includes a recently updated fully-illustrated e-book of over 50 pages covering
all of the most important functions of PowerPoint, several helpful software
tools, a series of PowerPoint templates, video clips, and animated tutorials. They
are currently including 5 years of personal email support, in which they will
answer questions, and will even review your slides and offer suggestions on how
to improve them. It’s like having your own personal PowerPoint coach.
The program was reviewed by Charles Perez in 2008, where the
author had nothing but praise, even admitting to “beginning to sound like an
infomercial.” Originally published on the Trial Presentation Blog (which unfortunately
no longer exists), the review is still available on the PowerPoint for Court site.
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| Inserting a video clip |
As I was reading through the e-book (PDF document), I found
many of the “secret shortcuts” that I work with as a frequent PowerPoint user,
including resizing text, jumping to specific slides, and blanking the screen. The
CD includes several “courtroom-appropriate” PowerPoint slide templates, some
useful Flash animations (and tools to work with them), video clips and audio
files (with editing tools).
PowerPoint may not be quite as powerful as some high-end graphics
applications like Photoshop or Illustrator for creating content, nor
specifically designed for presenting a database of hundreds of trial exhibits like
TrialDirector, but in the hands of someone who knows how to find and use the
bells and whistles, it can be used to prepare and present some very compelling
presentations. At $149, PowerPoint for Court can help put you in that category.